QUESTION : Is NomadBSD rolling release ? How recent are repos/packages ?

[a-p-jo]

I come from using Linux, specifically Arch & Ubuntu.

I moved to arch because I despise not having the latest releases and because I discovered the rolling release style, which I fell in love with.

I am moving to Nomad because I have many temporary computers that keep changing and want to move to a hyper-portable USB-install that runs on anything x86_64. But I can't really sacrifice the rolling release paradigm , is it the same for NomadBSD 130R-20210508 ?

[a-p-jo]

My own conclusions after research on the FreeBSD handbook + this video by Michael W. Lucas.

• Nomad 30R-20210508 is based off of FreeBSD 13-RELEASE

• FreeBSD has the following releases : X-RELEASE , X+1-STABLE, X+1-CURRENT. STABLE and CURRENT are rolling release testing branches, i.e, stability is not guaranteed, and especially with CURRENT which is absolutely bleeding edge and things may change strangely at any moment. RELEASE is considered good enough to give to end-users, and only receives security updates in it's lifetime.

• You can switch release to CURRENT or STABLE (though it wont be very bright, see below points on packages) by doing this. IMPORTANT : Both the development branches will have to be compiled by you; only RELEASE is available as binaries ( a deal breaker for me).

• It would be more ideal to stick to RELEASE. The base system can always be upgraded for security patches like this. When a new STABLE version is released, and when the user has time and feels like it, one can upgrade the base in-place like this. This process is well-implemented so there's little risk of having to reinstall to upgrade versions.

• FreeBSD is not like Linux, packages and the base system (kernel, drivers, etc) are different things altogether; pkg doesn't affect the base system.

• It is possible to have rolling release base system and packages independently of each other . This allows you to stick to a safe, stable base , with binary builds (which is useful) but still get bleeding edge packages.

• To switch to rolling release style packages , one must edit a small text file to change repos from quarterly (default) to latest , see this. This is all I did.